Disable Smilies in This Post. Show Signature: include your profile signature. Only registered users may have signatures.

*If HTML and/or UBB Code are enabled, this means you can use HTML and/or UBB Code in your message.

If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.

T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

From the U.S. Postal Service:

quote:The new $4.05 Priority Mail and $14.40 Express Mail stamps commemorate X-Planes, a series of experimental vehicles involving the U.S. military, NASA and companies such as Bell Aircraft, Boeing, Northrop and Lockheed Martin. From the first X-Plane flight in 1946 to the present, a variety of vehicles - manned and unmanned aircraft, cruise missiles, gliders and spacecraft - has helped extend the nation's reach into space.

Art Director Phil Jordan of Falls Church, Va., selected two computer-generated images of the X-15 from NASA studies. The colors show various scales of pressures and temperatures - blue is the lowest and red is the highest. The Priority Mail stamp shows the X-15 rotated upward to reveal the most surface area. The Express Mail stamp shows the colors against a meshed grid to illustrate how air is forced around and behind the plane. The two designs have text under the image reading, "Computer-generated aerodynamic study of an X-Plane."

Extraordinary technological advances following World War II prompted many different X-Plane concepts, including the X-1, a rocket-powered plane. On Oct. 14, 1947, with Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager at the controls, it became the first plane to intentionally travel faster than Mach 1.0, the speed of sound. In 1956, the X-2 became the first plane to reach an altitude of more than 100,000 feet (nearly 19 miles) and set a new speed record of Mach 2.87.

One of the best known - and the fastest and highest-flying, winged vehicle - was the X-15. By the late 1960s, it had flown at speeds exceeding 4,500 miles per hour and reached an altitude of more than 60 miles. Eight X-15 pilots earned astronaut wings for achieving an altitude of 50 miles or more as a result of their flights in this plane.

Information on the issue dates will be provided at a later date.

micropooz

FINALLY - not one X-15 stamp, but two from the USPS!!! Yayyy!!

karlitko

I do not like this stamp much. To be honest, I think they chose the worst picture they could...

I know tons of beautiful photos and nice art paintings of X-15. I doubt such computer visualization of pressure and temperature was done in the age of X-15. Also the legend of "Computer-generated aerodynamic study of an X-plane" is quite smattering.

Karel

Astro Bill

I agree Karel, but we have to accept what we are given. They could have placed the Washington Monument or the Statue of Liberty on these stamps. At least they have a SPACE theme. This is a Christmas present from the USPS to space collectors.

karlitko

Of course, it is better than nothing but I always regret that such things do not make people more enthusiastic in the subject...

Robert Pearlman

Without knowing anything else about the selection process and keeping in mind that the stamps are meant to represent all X Planes (and not just the X-15), my guess is that they were looking for images that would embody the aerodynamic research that the entire program was founded upon as well as something colorful enough to appeal to a mass audience. These images come across almost as abstract art for those unfamiliar with the science behind them.

Apollo-Soyuz

I feel the USUS should issue a first class stamp (39 cents) to commemorate the space program. It is hard to believe that the 20th anniversary of Challenger is approaching on January 28, 2006. I think a series of stamps commemorating the Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Magellan, Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers-Spirit and Oppurtunity and other programs should be commemorated with stamps. There is no reason I can see for this not to be done. Other countries commemorate space events.

------------------John MaccoVice PresidentSpace UnitShady Side, Md.

micropooz

I think Robert is right. They are trying to play up the research benefits of the X-planes and not necessarily the history.

And Karel is right too in that there were no computer generated false-color enhancements of the aerodynamic flow fields around the X-15 back in its time. Any computer correlations of X-15 data back then probably came out as line plots from an analog computer or sheets of numbers from a digital computer at the time.

The fact that someone has put in the effort to go back and model the X-15 aerodynamics with current-day flowfield visualization techniques (e.g. - the false-color stuff shown on the stamps) shows that the X-15's data is still important to researchers 40 years later. And that appears to be the message that the USPS is trying to send with these stamps.

Ben

While I like the stamps, I think they should either a) have used two different X planes if representing the whole fleet, or b) titled these as X-15 stamps (at least a mention of it at the bottom).

spaceman1953

I was excited until I saw the designs....but, oh well, you take what you get to get a space issue.

Besides, since these are so "ugly" maybe more people will put theirs in the Dumpsters for me to pick up !

Happy New Year !

GB

Mark Zimmer

On the contrary, I think these are so eye-catching and bold in their color scheme that they may well get more people to look closely at what they are, and maybe even get them thinking about the X program....

GliderGuider

Having just found these stamps, I agree that we should have more to commemorate the X-15 program but am mildly shocked to see that no comment to date has recognized the significance of these images.

One of the most important results of the X-15 program was to refine and validate CFD models and simulations for hypersonic flight. This was the transaction from learning by flying to learning by computer modeling.

Without that shift in technology it would not have been possible to fly the Space Shuttle, which had to cover the complete flight envelope from Mach 28 to Mach 0.7 for the first time on its first reentry.

NASA Langley was a key contributor to advancing simulation technology for both the X-15 and the Shuttle. In my opinion these stamps' images from Langley are very nice and appropriate commemorations of that advancement.

Of course it won't be long before I'll start pitching for additional X-15 commemorative stamps for 50th anniversary dates.

MScherzi

I used a few of the Priority Mail ones this week. I think they look better in person than on screen or in print.

I use space stamps for almost all of my outgoing space mail, and they never fail to get a comment from the clerks at the counter.

Take care,

Matt

RMH

For anyone interested:Artcraft covers features test pilot Pete Knight on their cachet for this stamp issue. You can buy them sericed or unserviced. Cachet looks pretty nice. web site is www.washpress.com and their phone number is 1-877-966-0001.

eurospace

These two stamps at $14.40 and $4.05 will be taken out of sale effective 30 September 2007.

Thus - if you still want to buy any, hurry up and place your order with USPS.